a bit of earth

garden salad

jeffxmas — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:02:27 +0000

I have a whole new respect for this phrase. Check it out: 100% from my back yard.

gilbert

jeffxmas — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:27:14 +0000

Okay, so the blog took a bit of a hiatus. I’d like to make some bold statement about its return, but I know that school starts next week and, well….I can’t make any promises.

What I can promise, though, is pictures of our awesome grapes. They turned out very very well. Delicious. Also, I pioneered a new way to eat them that lets me get more flavor out of them. Any of you who are familiar with concord grapes know that you don’t just chew them like the grapes in the grocer’s produce section. I’ll spare the juicy (pun intended) details of my method, but it makes these babies even more enjoyable.

picture perfect

jeffxmas — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:24:56 +0000

Check these babies out:

A beautiful summery squash.

And the longest asparagus bean I’ve ever seen.

the first cucumber

jeffxmas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:52:31 +0000

The picture is a little blurry, but this is our best-looking cucumber yet. So we chopped it up and ate it. It was deeeeelicious. I don’t know why it took us until now to eat them. They are smaller, pickling cucumbers so I think that made me believe they would be bitter. Not at all. In fact, I was so surprised by their flavor because I think I’ve grown accustomed to the industrialized cucumbers I get when I order salads at restaurants. My little home-grown cuke was a mouthful of fresh air.

my education continues

jeffxmas — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:26:08 +0000

So we have several tomato plants. I was undert he impression that they would yield big ol’ by-george tomatoes. They bloomed. The blooms turned into green fruit and then…the tomatoes never got very big. Meredith assured me that once they started to change colors that meant they could (and often should) be picked. Well, I went along with it but was suspicious. Finally I decided to let the next round grow longer and see what happened. I had visions/hopes of them turning into much bigger tomatoes, though the little ones have been very delicious.

The result: I was wrong. They are just small pear-shaped tomatoes with an awesome flavor. I left them on the vine longer than necessary and many of them started to split right down the middle. Now I know.

bean cuisine

jeffxmas — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:04:09 +0000

In keeping with their aggressive growth this whole season, the beans were ripe for the picking yesterday. Meredith harvested a bunch of them and we decided to see what they tasted like. She picked some asparagus beans and pole beans.

Step 1: wash.

Step 2: put in pot:

Step 3: cook (notice how they turn green? That’s wild!)

Step 4: enjoy. And I’ll tell you this much, they had an awesome flavor. It reminded both Meredith and I of our grandmothers. I am looking forward to seeing what the asparagus beans taste like. We shall see.

holy frijole

jeffxmas — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:25:02 +0000

Things are still moving right along in the family garden on Barton Street. The lettuce has actually not wilted, but has taught me a lesson. I assumed it would wilt in the warm weather and then die off (or we’d cut it back). Instead, it is still growing but tasting exceedingly bitter. Now I know how this works. Heat makes it turn bitter–got it.

The big news, however, is the beans. To review, we planted 3 types: asparagus beans, pole beans, and Barnett beans (an heirloom bean belonging to the family of a close friend). The asparagus beans and pole beans went in early and the barnetts later, but they’re all working hard.

First, the asparagus beans. I came out to check on the garden the other day and noticed this long part of the plant. I know they need to climb so I moved it toward the string we had sent down for it to climb. This extension, however, didn’t have the sticky feeling or the little hooky-things on the end. I was puzzled. Then I realized: it’s the actual bean itself. Not fully mature, but that’s it. These things are HUGE. Super long and narrow–like asparagus. Again, I get it.

long bean

So then, I noticed the pole beans, which had been really jumping up the fence and strings lately. They totally have beans. Additionally, they’re freaking purple. I had no idea. I guess they might either turn green when they mature or when we cook them. Crazy. We’ll see. Here they are:

purple bean

harvesting

jeffxmas — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:14:37 +0000

I haven’t been able to write as much lately because I’ve been too busy watering, harvesting, cooking, and eating.

That might be a slight exaggeration, but we have begun to gather goodness from our garden with more frequency. Check it out:

There was some confusion as to whether this was a squash or someone’s nose. I think we figured it out.

something about a kid named jack

jeffxmas — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:09:43 +0000

I now understand a new angle of the whole “jack and the beanstalk” story. Once these things decide to grow they really are quite aggressive. And aggressive is the perfect word. They have tiny hairs/spikes on the ends that grab out at any and everything nearby. Luckily we were advised to give them a string to climb up. This beautiful beanery is a pole bean that might just climb all the way up our string before it even puts forth and actual beans. I’m not sure what we’ll do then. I guess just be on the lookout for a golden egg…

the sergeants

jeffxmas — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:35:07 +0000

This is what I’m calling the peppers.

Not a ton to report on them, but they’re growing like crazy, and even beginning to turn yellow. I’m really excited about them.

If I didn’t know better I would say that this guy is getting very close to being edible. I wonder if they will be spicy. I wonder if they will be sweet. We have no idea because neither of us (or our grandparents) ever really grew peppers like this. I really can’t wait to find out.